William's first day of KINDERGARTEN

I knew this day was coming, but I canNOT believe William has left my nest to venture in the world of elementary school.

I was beyond nervous about everything. This was my first child in full day kindergarten. I know, Kindergarten isn't goodbye forever but I feel like time speeds up significantly once my kids enter school and they get to experience new elements of their world without me by their side.

He was pretty stoked the days leading up to it. The whole week before he pressed for me to take him to get his shots so he would be ready.

(Here he is post shots showing stickers to Matthew.)

We got to have a one on one meeting with his teacher and it went so well, I am really pleased with his teacher this year, she is a perfect match for him. It was so precious watching him take in the classroom, reorganizing all the toys so they looked better. He decided his favorite part was the science area.

(This was from the Meet the Teacher....this was he "nervous" face.)

But this is how he "WHEELY" felt.

 Right after the meeting we went to the park and William was so independent of Matthew and me. It settled well with my heart that he was ready for this transition as I watched him talk to other kids on the playground.

(here's a few pictures of them together at the park, because gosh, Matthew is sad with his buddy gone!)

Give me all the crying emojis now please.

The next day at the library, it was the same thing. He grabbed books are "read" them to his brother, and played with other kids in the outside space.

He was just growing up right before my eyes. Naturally, he was an absolute delight that last week home, so I would be miss him EXTRA when he went to school.

These pictures are from the "soft start"- he got to go to kindergarten for an hour just to test it out. I love how kinders look with their oversized backpacks!

He just quietly walked over, grabbed a Clifford book and started reading.

I had to include this one because it is the only one with his buddy Luke.

Here his is on his REAL first day of school. He was so independent and wanted to walk in all by himself. 

One more snap and then I was off to keep myself distracted while I definitely did not count down the minutes until he got home.

When I picked him up at 2:30, he bound for the car with the biggest smile on his face and a first day of kindergarten crown on his head. The first thing he said was "I bet you can't wait to hear ALL about my day! And guess what? I ate my lunch ALL gone!"

Here is what WIlliam wants me to say about kindergarten.

"I like it. It's really fun. We have two lunch times. My friends are Luke, Grady, Sam, Niko. I like Mrs. Jones, cause she's so nice. She does fun stuff."

We came home and got RIGHT to homework. He was really loves doing homework.

In order to help the other kids, I told him legos was part of his homework, haha. It is just so crazy how much he has grown even in the last couple weeks.

Here he is on day two. He made sure I stayed ten feet behind so he could walk to school "all by himself."  

The first day, Johnny and William said they fought during recess, after a lecture about how we are ALWAYS on our sibling's team and our family does NOT fight, I was pleased that for a brief five minutes, the boys played on the swings together and Johnny bragged to all his friends how fast Wiliam was at pumping. I love that they get to see each other a little bit every day.

Yesterday he came home from school and went to bed for the night at 5:30 pm, so I'd say he works himself pretty hard!

I am beyond grateful this transition has gone as smoothly as it has, and know God has been in the details. I have felt His love for Wills and I know, His grace has made all the difference in raising this little boy. 

Miss Shupe's Pizzaria

An ongoing theme in Johnny's kindergarten this month has been pizza. His teacher has incorporated it into his learning and it has been so fun for him and the other kids. For the last school day of the month, parents were invited to a pizzaria party.

It was seriously the cutest thing ever.

Here's all the chefs with their restaurant logo.

Chef Johnny took my order. I ordered a pizza with two olives, two peppers, four pinapple and one pepperoni. His little fingers killed me!

Here he is preparing my pizzas!

I had to take a little picture of their pizza stations!

While our pizza cooked, we got to listen to the songs they have been working on.

Here are our pizzas. Johnny sat on my lap and we had ourselves a nice little cuisine. It was so fun to spend time with that cute boy. Meanwhile, Cate had quite the day at school as well, with visiting livestock and all!

Tonight starts harvest break for the kids. I am SO excited to have all my kids home!!

Dress Like a Teacher Day

OK, I'm just going for it.
I am soooo behind and it has kept me from blogging, but I'm just going to write and see where that gets me.
Sooo, there's a couple things you need to know about today.

First, William snuck Caity's lunch from the fridge, hid under his bed and ate all the good stuff without any of us knowing. I for real, thought I had early onset alzhiemers trying to find Caity's lunch today. She kept looking at me like I was crazy, and I kept opening the fridge saying, "I swear I...."

Second, Matthew is Mr. Sass. He keeps trying to go down the deck stairs and he will just glare at you the whole time saying "No!" (Pronounced, "Nuh!") all like, "Don't even try to stop me mom." It is the funniest thing, I think he is imitating a certain older sibling...

Third, today I didn't stop going from wake up until nine o clock in the evening it. was. hectic. But in kind of a good way. My favorite part was volunteering in Johnny's class. I kind of like kids and it was kind of fun.  It was also so cute to see that boy in a classroom setting. (see pictures from his teacher at the bottom of this post.)

Fourth, This week is Spirit week at the kids' school. It is homecoming for the high school on Friday so the whole town gets involved. Every day has a dress up theme. Yesterday was pajama day (best day ever. seriously.) And today was dress like a teacher day. The kids were so cute trying to figure out good outfits. Johnny wanted to be his principal and Caity wanted to be Mrs. Galer. Caity requested a loose braid, and Johnny wanted parted hair like Mr. Williams.  They were so cute and excited.

Caity's teacher name tag! Ugh, I just love her.  (You can see how excited she is by her fists when I took the picture.)  

Johnny and his teacher, Mrs. Shupe (who is dressed up like a kid in "the coolest ninja turtle shirt for grown ups you should get one, Mom.")  His teacher said he walked into class, pointed his finger and said,  "Now listen here! I'm the principal! In your seats! Listen here!"  It cracked me up and it cracked Johnny up retelling it to me when he got home, haha.  He said Mr. Williams walked up to him and said, "Oh, hello Principal Williams, WAIT! I'M Principal Williams!" And then Johnny apparently pointed his fingers at his principal and said, "GOTCHYA!" And they both laughed, "so hard we thought we would break our ankles."  I'm sorry I missed that, I don't know that I ever have laughed that hard.

Johnny Goes to Kindergarten

I know I already touched on the kids' first day of the school year, but I feel like I need to expound a little bit with Johnny's first day of school EVER. Kindergarten is a big deal, you know.

Johnny isn't one to have any sort of social anxiety, so I wasn't too worried about the transition for him.  His teacher, Mrs. Shupe, came to visit our home the week before to prepare Johnny for what was ahead. From the moment she left until this morning, that boy has been nothing short of stars in his eyes as he counted down "how many sleeps"there were until "KINDERGARTEN!" 

Last night after I tucked the other kids in and then went and knelt by Johnny's bed, we talked for about fifteen minutes about how he was mostly excited and he wasn't sure if he would be able to fall asleep, even with the magic confetti Mrs.Shupe gave him to sprinkle under his pillow. I said I was excited for him and he said, "But you are also sad right? Cause you are going to miss me."  I responded with a "Of course." Then he looked to the ceiling, put his hand under his head and said, "Yeah, I'm going to miss you too....but at least I'll be back in the afternoon and you can make me peanut butter honey toast for lunch." Then he started nodding his head, "Yeah, peanut butter toast is going to taste good, right mom?"  I gave him one more kiss on the forhead and his right cheek (those are his favorite spots that he always points too.) Then I told my Johnny-boy I loved him and closed the door.  He grew up so fast. 

This morning was the first morning in the history of ever, I swear, that Johnny had trouble getting up. That confetti worked a little TOO well. Haha. Once he realized what day it was, he was in a mad frenzy to get ready on time and to make sure William knew that he wasn't coming to kindergarten with Johnny, but that Johnny would be back in the afternoon. 

We had german pancakes for breakfast, took a million pictures and then got on our bikes to take off to school.  He couldn't get his bike to go and he started crying. That was weird.  I tried to help him, but he just kept crying "I can't."  I realized it didn't have to do with the bike so much and I knelt down and grabbed his shoulders and said, "Johnny today is going to be AWESOME! Your teacher can't wait to see you, and you get to sit by William (his friend.)"  He took a deep breath, smiled and said, "OK, I can do this."  And off we went.  The whole ride there he was telling Caity how awesome it was going to be and how excited everyone in his class was to meet him, haha.

His brothers were as excited to see him off as Caity was to guide him around the school.

No, Matthew doesn't have hypothermia- he just ate a blue marker.

He wanted me to make sure you all knew he wasn't nervous in this picture, just super cold because his mom told him it was warm enough to wear shorts.

We walked into his classroom, where he gave a picture and an apple to his teacher. His buddy, William showed him where to hang his backpack and how to play with the blocks at his table. Because we were late (shame on me and hello, story of my life), I didn't get to helicopter loiter as much as I would have liked. So, I reluctantly headed toward the exit. I looked back at him and saw a smiling, busy boy. I walked through the door, they closed it and it's hard to explain what went through my mind in that moment.

A change occured as that door closed. There is a new element in Johnny's life that I am not really a part of. Sure it is only a few hours in the morning, but it seems to symbolize a whole lot more. He is moving on to the next stage, there will be new adventures and experiences and I get to be there walking with him through it all...but in a different way than before. For a while I was his whole world, and now there are others that comprise the world that is forming around him- how grateful I am for all those others, and how I pray that they will see in Johnny the special boy I see.  My heart broke and burst all in one swift moment and I don't know how to catergorize the feeling that surged through me tempting tears and a ball built in my throat. It wasn't nesessarily sadness, nor exactly happiness- perhaps more of a fulfillment and peace that this is life. These milestones happen and will continue to happen and I will let go a little bit because I love him and want to let him grow.  A segment of our life kind of died today and in its place is something beautiful is begining to grow that I pray I can live up to my end of that beautiful something.

There is only an hour until I pick him up. I can't wait to hear all about his first day of school!

After School

How was school today?

"I was happy and I did the monkey bars!! (hand pump) it was a little scary, but that tube thing, do you think I went down it? Yes, I did. I slipped down, like zooom, like it took two seconds to get all the way to the bottom. And I was on the swings with some pushing me, I thought, but.. no no, I didn't see anyone pushing but when my legs went in and out, guess what, Mom? The swing went back and forth. You wanna know what I wish? That there were some sings that you just sit on and they go back and forth really fast and go around if you say, "go around."  And I was like playing with that marble thing, there were lots of stick things and you put the marbles in and you can stick them together and they do really cool stuff, like you want to make and if it is an "M" it will do an "M".  I played with Really big dinosaurs, like this big, there is a shark one that's THIS big. No it's not scary. I can carry it with all my hands and all my might. See my might? Big muscles, right Mom? Only with everyone can we make it this high. Cool right? The shark is a tiny bit bigger than William. But what you wanna know what its super duper bigger than of? A plate.  Uh and like there's like the other thing, but with big marbles and you can see there and the things stick and a rolly thing with a pretty big marble like this big and if you back is really cold, and it goes on your back and do you know I trided twice? I love it.  You want to know two serious things? There are two bugs. One daddy long leg and a poisenous spider. Oh and there is little dinosaurs. Oh, and I was going up the slide and the girls said, "GIRLS ONLY" and kicked me off and I didn't tell though, because I didn't want to get them in trouble. Yeah, that was Baaaaad."

What did you learn today?

"Quiet. You have to be quiet. And love one another. Actually we didn't learn anything because everyone was new and learned first day of school stuff.  And actually William wasn't that nice, he was chasing people to make them scared, so I chased him and said WIIIIIILLLIIIIIAAAM! and he was like Ahhhhh and everyone said thank you.  My friends are...so I don't know their names, but I know a Kaden and my other new friend uuuuuh, it's something with a "Buh" like, Brandon. Or maybe Braylee."

Sounds like a good first day in my book!

When he got out of class he ran up to us. William met him halfway and and they hugged as they rotated in a circle, Then he cusped Matthew's cheeks and said in his baby voice, "Aren't you just the cutest?? Did you miss me!?"  Then he hollered, "After-school HUG!" And pummeled me. Which made my entire exsistance.  We talked to his friend, William, who is in his class and then as we walked away, he said "Stinks to be Caity she still has the rest of the whole day going to school."

Johnny and his buddy, William Brewer.

And their shadow, William Brassell.

Here is a picture of his whole class a couple days later on red shirt friday:

Kindergarten, ready or not- Johnny is going to rock your world.

Day One of Preschool, Day 100 of Kindergarten

I'm a little (lot) behind on this post, but back in February we had a big day here at Brassell House. 

Johnny attended his first day of preschool!

He was beyond excited, for the first time he could remember- he had an activity of his very own to look forward to each week.  He attends Tuesday and Thursday for a couple hours and comes home a fountain of knowledge:

"If you don't stop, look, and listen, you'll get smashed by a car or something."

"Mmmm, chili powder...smells like Christmas!" (confused it with cloves)

"I don't know. When I grow up I want to be a firefighter or a policeman. Cause they both have dogs, so that would be good thing for me!"

"If there is a 'emernigency' call the three numbers I can't remember."

Every day of the week, he sings the "Days of the Week" song until we get to the day we are currently on. Yesterday: "Today's Sunday because yesterday was Saturday and then we start again."

His favorite part of preschool is show and tell on Thursday he plans all week for it.  He adores his teacher, Mrs. Susan for a lot of reasons but mostly because she calls him "honey" and because she has curly hair. 

Worksheets I have been trying to get him to work on since summer seem so new and cool when presented at preschool, so it has really turned out to be a good thing for him. A real confidence booster as well.

On his first day, I wish I would have gotten a picture of him sitting in his chair at class. He sat in his desk with his fingers interlaced, elbows out, sitting up straight, smiling and eager. Caity gave him some "school pointers" on the way, so when his teacher said, "How is everyone doing today?" his hand shot right up, so when he was called on he could say "Good! I mean, great, yeah- I'm great!"

On the same day of Johnny's first day, Caity celebrated her 100th day of school. We went to help out with the celebration, it is always fun to get in the classroom and take in the eagerness of kindergarteners at work, learning.

Here she is making a 100th day of kindergarten hat.

She let her brother come sit by her, I am always so grateful how inclusive she is with her brothers.

William high jacked some childrens' snacks.

Johnny joined in on the fun

Sitting with the big kids for story time.

Caity is on the far end by the filing cabinet. 

This girl loves kindergarten and says she can't wait for first grade because then she'll get lots of homework (we'll see how long THAT lasts!)  It has been a great year and I love this phase of learning, at least for Caity- she is really inhaling any and every piece of knowledge. 

Caity's Kindergarten Graduation

Caity's kindergarten graduation was basically the cutest thing ever.

She didn't think her dad would make it, you should have seen the excitement in her face when she saw him! 

She was in charge of passing out programs. It was so fun to see her little responsible self doing that.

Her whole class

Getting her diploma

With her teacher, Mrs. Frazier

Caity is at :04